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Published: January 18th 2006
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Birthday
My neighbours dad... who is also my neighbour! Apologies for delay in blog update. It's been a while as a) nothing of interest has really been happening and b) every time I want to upload photos the travelblog website doesn't work. So as this is a blog about xmas and new year I'm just going to upload it without photos and I'll try to upload photos tomorrow again.
Hello people! Thanks to Lisa for her very lonely comment on my previous blog!! It was enormously appreciated!!!! Not even birthday messages.. how disappointing! 😞
So the lead up to Christmas day was great! No shopping involved so very stress free. We decided not to buy presents for each other in my house and that worked great and obviously no one at home has any presents. I am buying the family presents just not yet!!
On the 22nd I took 2 birthday cakes into class to celebrate my birthday with those two classes. The kids loved it and a lot of them gave me birthday and Christmas cards, one of which said - I wish you healthy and happiness on your birthday so you can teach me very beautiful.... That night we went drinking Bia Hoi with the
Birthday
My cake,my students and I! neighbours, Hung and Chinh until past midnight and they were very excited (more than me) to wish me a happy birthday after 12!
On the 23rd I took another cake into class to share with my Wednesday class and we pretty much had a full on birthday party. They were speaking English - singing Happy Birthday to me and we played loads of games. It was one of the best birthday parties I've ever had! I got gifts from the students and from my T.A's including a T.A. who is not my T.A. who gave me a sweet ass present - it's like a small bean bag shaped like a star! I loved it!!! So after work we also went to Bia Hoi, drank some beer, celebrated the last few hours of my birthday and I enjoyed it! I really enjoy spending time with the neighbours as they really don't speak that much English and we don't speak that much Vietnamese so it's a barrel of laughs AND I've been learning so much Vietnamese from these Bia Hoi nights!
Christmas Eve I had to work until 5 which is totally against my Christmas ethic - Christmas Eve should be a
Xmas
My neighbours at xmas driving through Saigon national holiday, just as much as Christmas day - especially seeing as Christmas Eve in Vietnam is more important than the 25th. Got home and started to prepare the neighbours' presents. We had bought a load of fruit, sweets, chocolate and baked goods that we placed in a small box and put some ribbon round as a Christmas present for each set of neighbours. I know I have mentioned our neighbours briefly but I'll go into a little more detail. Our next door neighbours are a young couple with 2 children, a 9 year old boy and a 2 year old girl. They are inredibly kind to us and the father pays for all of your bills (we give him the money but he goes to pay them) and he fixes anything that needs fixing in our house. Our neighbours across the alleyway are a larger family - the parents, an older sister (30) an older brother who is 28 (and his wife), another sister Trang (who I think is 26), Chinh (24), Phuong (22), Hung (20), Loan (18) and Tran (16). Due to their ages being somewhat similiar to ours we (or more like I) tend to hang out
Xmas
Chinh and Tran with them a lot. We go to bia Hoi with the boys (girls in Vietnam don't drink or smoke!) and watch TV or sing karaoke with the girls. They are a very, very nice family who are always offering us fruit, or food of some kind. Both neighbours were thrilled with their presents. Our next door neighbours immediately invited us to sit down and drink beer with them (which we bloody well did!) and then our other set of neighbours invited us to their house for food! Typical Christmas Eve meal in Vietnam?? Dog meat! IT WAS UNBELIEVABLY TENDER, JUICY AND DELICIOUS!!! I was shocked as to how nice it tasted! It is probably the best meal I have had since being in Vietnam and believe me that is well hard to beat as everything here is so good! After plenty of beer had flown and plenty of dog had been munched we headed to district 1 (the backpackers district and where we lived in for the first month) to go to some bars. Chinh, Loan and Tran came with us and we had a pretty funny evening!
On Christmas day, all I wanted to do was to sleep in. But no. Our neighbours had cranked up their karaoke system to full blast making it impossible to sleep. And of course, if you can't beat them, join them. Tran came and knocked on our door and invited me to sing with her and her family (let's face it I don't sing!) which I duly accepted safe in the knowledge that my excuse would be I cannot sing Vietnamese songs. So I go over, sit down with an obvious smug look on my face because in my head I still believe I am not going to sing and spill out my lame ass excuse, only for the mother to pull out the fattest karaoke menu I have ever seen (I haven't seen many - this is true!) full of English songs AND some Portuguese songs!!! I was mightily impressed and also worried as now I had no leg to stand on! Luckily Moira walks out of the house and I collar her in just in time for her to sing! She sang Pretty Woman and did herself proud. We were then offered lunch (some more woof woof meat) and beer! These people are hardcore!!!! Drinking beer before 11!!??? What's all that about!? HAD to go for a nap after that mid morning drinking sess before getting ready to go to our Christmas meal. A few weeks back we booked a Christmas dinner at one of the fanciest hotels in Ho Chi Minh City - The New World Hotel with a bunch of other people. An all you can eat, all you can drink buffet for 41 dollars (25-30 quid or 15 - 20Euros) - which aint bad at all! After the meal we headed back to Bia Hoi!! 😊 Seriously - that place is addictive!!!
And that was my Christmas! It was intense, bizarre, so diferent but oh so enjoyable! I was in stitches pretty much all the time!
New Year's was an anti-climax. I'm not a huge new years person and so I never expect much from it. However this time round I had to work on New Year's Eve (waking up at 6 o'clock didn't help my cause of being able to stay up late!). We went for some food and then went to our usual bar in District one, ended the year playing pool, began the year playing pool and then I went home earlier than everyone else at half 1. I was really tired and just wanted to spend some time alone - time to think on the past year and what I want from the year ahead and wanted to spend some time thinking about my family. I missed them during the festive season.
So there you have it! Major news is that Lisa is coming over to visit me (University Lisa) in March so I'm very excited!! My next blog is not for the faint of heart - You have been warned!
Take it easy and speak to you all soon,
Rooj xxx
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Gina
non-member comment
Grrr
THis is a message from Gina's dog Lucky. I hope they don't run out of meat otherwise I might be next on the menu!! PAws crossed my name will protect me... SOunds like you are having a great time. Me well the new job is great - spending most of my time on ebay buying items for handling sessions - love spending someone elses money. Take care and continue having fun, Gina XXXX